


Dreams

by Rainey_Arlet



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Post-Games (Hunger Games), Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25665418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainey_Arlet/pseuds/Rainey_Arlet
Summary: Every night, Katniss dreams of the Games. And in every dream, she sees her: hurtling through the treetops, singing to the mockingjays, crumpling to her death, and breathing her last breaths.
Kudos: 5





	Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Katniss has dreams of Rue.

Katniss sees her everywhere; in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow, in the mockingjays that sing in the trees; in everything beautiful, in everything sweet. When she sees rare instances of innocence and beauty within the cold metal fences of District 12, she sees her.

Most of all, she sees her in her sister Prim; especially when Prim is leaning a bit forward on the toes of her boots, skinny arms slightly extended to her sides, like she’s about to take flight, like a bird. A sharp, stinging pain shoots through her chest, and she has to clench her eyes shut to stop the tears from flowing. Because whenever she looks at her little sister, who is as fresh and delicate as the yellow flower she was named after; Katniss can’t help but see a tiny body collapsed in a nest of netting, a spear wedged in her thin stomach, bright flowers weaved into red blood. She sees a girl as young and pretty as her sister, breathing her last breaths and slowly shriveling to death; and then she feels tears welling in her eyes, her knees buckling, the first line of that song she sang stuck in the back of her throat.

That’s just the way it is, when Katniss is reminded of Rue.

~

Every night, Katniss dreams of the Games, and in almost every dream, she sees Rue. Sometimes they’re peaceful dreams, full of sunlight and song. Sometimes they’re bad dreams: the hellish moments of Rue’s death reprised in the form of nightmares.

Sometimes she sees Rue hurtling through treetops, leaping from tree to tree with her small feet never touching the ground. Sometimes she sees Rue foraging for food, her bony fingers stripping bushes of berries and nuts and pulling roots from the forest earth. Sometimes she sees Rue curled up in her sleeping bag, warm body snuggled against hers, telling her stories about the harsh, regulated district she calls home.

But most of the time, she sees a net, she sees a spear, she hears a shriek for help and a shocked gasp as the weapon pierces Rue’s small body; and as Rue crumples to the ground in pain, her feet are planted to the ground, unable to move, unable to save her.

She could have saved her. She could have saved Rue.

Yet she couldn’t.

~

Somehow, the happy dreams of Rue singing and smiling and laughing haunt her even more than the nightmares. Maybe it’s because she knows that during the short twelve years of her life, Rue has never had time to sing or smile or laugh to her heart’s content. Living within the strict laws and inescapable barrier of District 11, Rue was likely never a happy girl. She remembers the surprise in the little girl’s round amber eyes when she offered her an extra groosling leg. The look of disbelief in her face that said _”For me? I can have it?”._ The look in her face that said she never had enough to eat at home.

~

Katniss doesn’t tell anybody about it, but the dreams start to eat her alive, haunting her every sleeping moment with memories from the Games, forcing her to relive the pain and torment and suffering of those eighteen long days. She feels empty, she feels hollow, like the dream are leeching her of life.

Still, she wakes up every morning at sunrise, mechanically rising from her bed and drawing her curtains. She braids her hair, she sends Prim off to school, she sneaks out into the woods to hunt. She shoots each arrow with precision. She sets up each snare with an expert flair bordering on Gale’s. She throws her knife with more concentration and strength than she ever did.

But even the peaceful green shrubbery of the woods can’t calm her.

~

One night, Katniss has yet another dream of Rue. She sees Rue struggling in a huge net, swimming through a sea of rope, trying to free herself from its clutches. With every twitch of her body, the net grows even bigger, its ropes tangling in countless thick knots. Suddenly, an arrow flies from a nearby tree, piercing her body and going right throw her heart. Rue screams, but keeps struggling, calling for help, calling for Katniss. Another arrow flies towards her, hitting her in the arm. Another hits her in the leg. Another pierces her hand.

Rue keeps struggling, desperately fingering through the ropes. More arrows, sharp and swift with silver feathers, fly at her like bullets, piercing her body with precision and accuracy. Feet planted to the ground with Rue dying three feet away from her, Katniss can’t do anything. In bewilderment, she glances up at the tree to see who the archer is, and feels bile rise from her stomach.

Perched on a branch, half-hidden by leaves, is none other than Katniss Everdeen, gripping a silver bow with a steely look of concentration etched on her face.

With a violent scream tearing through her throat, Katniss jolts out of bed to find Prim standing at her doorway, fear and concern written all over her face.

And for the first time, Katniss bares her heart and tells someone about her dreams.

~

“Maybe she’s out there somewhere, Katniss,” Prim says thoughtfully. “Maybe she’s out there, climbing trees and singing and smiling, just like in your dreams.”

No, she’s dead. She’s gone forever. Poor, innocent Rue, who lived a miserable life and died a miserable death, isn’t ‘out there somewhere’. Katniss knows that, and she knows Prim knows that too. But looking at her little sister’s sweet face, with those round eyes gazing at her so innocent and pure, Katniss wants to believe her, just like she would have believed whatever Rue told her.

So, for the first time in what seems like forever, Katniss smiles.

“You know, Prim,” she says, “maybe you’re right. Maybe she’s out there somewhere, free as a bird.”

Free as a bird. Free as a mockingjay.

~

In Katniss’s dreams, Rue is still alive. She is still there, singing to mockingjays while perched atop a tree, smiling that small, almost shy smile of hers. She is sitting atop a tree so high that no spear, man, beast, or even bird can harm her. She is smiling with bright flowers weaved in her hair, swinging her legs and gazing at the sky; free forever to be a child, free forever from the chains that Panem wrapped around her tiny body.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback and criticism much appreciated!


End file.
